Fixing three water-damaged buildings will cost Beaufort County more than $18 million, according to its architecture consultant.

With about $10.5 million on hand, the county will have to borrow $7.7 million more to complete all three jobs, said its chief financial officer.

The biggest and most expensive task is the Beaufort County Courthouse; renovation cost is estimated at about $13.5 million. Repairs to the county administration building and detention center are estimated at $3.9 million and $600,000, respectively.

Administrator Gary Kubic said his staff will recommend a strategy to the Beaufort County Council this week.

“It might make more sense to move forward with the courthouse and detention center and hold off on the administration building,” Kubic told the council on March 26.

Fraser Construction, a local builder, submitted a bid of $18,016,500 on the project in September. However, the county has delayed acceptance until the council decides on a course of action.

“We have delayed bid acceptance for several months,” Kubic said. Joe Fraser of Fraser Construction has extended the bid offer but may not do so indefinitely, the administrator said.

Miles Glick of Glick Boehm Architects of Charleston outlined the renovation project for council members last week.

In addition to repairing existing and preventing future water damage, plans provide for a redesign of the courthouse to make it more appealing, provide more security and better utilize existing space, Glick said.

The exterior “arcade” at the front of the building would be enclosed to become part of the lobby, “capturing space you already own with the roof and foundation already there,” the architect said.

Likewise, the rear balcony “is of little use except collecting water” and also would be enclosed to create about 2,200 more square feet of interior space, he said.

Aesthetically, the courthouse would take historic cues from its predecessor at the turn of the 20th Century, “making it an icon of the community, which is what a courthouse ought to be,” Glick said. The old courthouse was built in the French “Second Empire” style with brick walls and a slate roof, he said.

The adjacent jail and administration building would complement the courthouse, which would remain “the gem of the complex,” he said.

Renovation is required to replace water damage caused by “interior gutters” that failed, allowing water between the exterior and interior walls of the buildings, Glick said. “There’s no way to exit incidental water that gets behind the skin,” he said.

Glick Boehm Architecture was the county’s technical consultant and “forensic architect” in litigation over three “failed building envelopes” at the courthouse, administration building and detention center. The County Council later hired GBA for $725,000 to provide design services on the three buildings.

In 2004, Michael Seekings of the Charleston law firm Leath, Bouch & Crawford filed suit on behalf of the county against 14 contractors, claiming buildings that should have lasted decades were in a state of “accelerated deterioration.”

In April 2008, following a series of court-ordered mediation hearings, Seekings announced an $8.2 million settlement. The law firm’s fee was a discounted 30 percent, leaving the county about $5.9 million for renovations.

County Chief Financial Officer David Starkey said another $5 million is available because a federal grant for the St. Helena Island Library allows capital improvement funds to be used elsewhere.

Beyond building costs, county officials must weigh the logistics of continuing operations through the construction process. So members of Beaufort County Council toured the federal courthouse on Bay Street last week, considering possible uses of the space that may be available to them soon.

The building served as the county courthouse for more than a century. It was built in 1884, renovated in 1936 and became the federal courthouse in 1994. But now it’s on a list of 60 federal courthouses scheduled to be closed as a cost-cutting measure. The county still owns the building, which it leased to the federal government.

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